CHI87DEX01 · Turnbloom KITFOX
Turnbloom KITFOX · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI87DEX01
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Turnbloom KITFOX
- Aircraft type
- Turnbloom KITFOX
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N371DT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Initial climb
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of control in flight
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Miscellaneous › Undetermined
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT RPRTD THAT WHEN HE WAS PREPARING FOR THE ACFT'S 1ST TEST FLT, HE MADE A HI SPEED RUN WITH THE TAIL RAISED & ACFT CONTROL WAS GOOD. ON THE NEXT RUN, HE PLANNED TO LET THE ACFT LIFT OFF THE RWY, THEN LET IT SETTLE BACK ON THE SURFACE. HE STATED THAT HE APPLIED FULL THROTTLE, & AFTER THE ACFT ROLLED APRX 100', IT 'LIFTED OFF AT A HIGH ANGLE OF CLIMB, FULL FORWARD ELEVATOR & THROTTLE REDUCTION BROUGHT THE AIRCRAFT TO LEVEL FLIGHT, 20-30' ABOVE RUNWAY.' THE ACFT THEN BGN TO ROLL & SUBSEQUENTLY NOSED DOWN & IMPACTED THE GND ABOUT 75' OFF THE LEFT SIDE OF THE RWY. THE PLT WAS WEAR- ING A SHOULDER HARNESS & WAS NOT INJURED, BUT THE ACFT WAS EXTENSIVELY DAMAGED (AFT FUSELAGE/EMPENNAGE BADLY BENT BTN THE BAGGAGE COMPARTMENT & HORIZONTAL STABILIZER). THE REASON FOR THE LOSS OF CONTROL WAS NOT DETERMINED. THE STUDENT PLT HAD NO PREVIOUS FLT TIME IN THIS MAKE & MODEL OF ACFT & WAS NOT ENDORSED FOR THE FLT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI87DEX01
- Event ID
- 20001213X35120
- Case number
- CHI87DEX01
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 978b3a07bb9cc8b3920ff202e48e710daced38d1e3123b4513b33626ddc2c1ff; retrieved 2026-09-23T13:44:51.175Z.